The Commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast Lieutenant General Egon Ramms, and the representative of the Civil and Military Cooperation Branch in HQ MNC NE - major Cezary Haracewiat, were invited by the Büro Landrat from BEESKOW, in Germany to take part in the international crisis management exercise called "Odersprung 2005".
The one-day exercise was conduct in the Eisenhuttenstadt and its vicinities in Germany. The Odersprung 2005 exercise was the final result of the many years cooperations between Polish and German border -control administrations as well as crisis respond civilian organizations responsible for dealing with natural disasters and catastrophes. The main aims of that Polish – German initiative were to:
- strengthen the cooperation between public organizations and the institutions responsible for preventing and dealing with the result of natural disasters and catastrophes
- increase the capability of crisis respond on the both side of the border with the emphasize on establishing the Polish - German crisis management center
- acknowledge the observers and participants with the organization, procedures and the complexity of the various rescue actions.
- demonstrate the skills and abilities of the particular rescue and crisis respond organizations
- draw the frames of the future Polish – German cooperation in the area of crisis management
In the activities participated approx. 1300 police officers, border- control officers, firemen, medical and technical rescue teams as well as special sea rescue and mountain rescue and many other representatives of the crisis respond institutions and services. The "ODERSPRUNG 2005" exercise were observed by the guests from Poland, German and foreign visitors from Netherlands and Great Britain. The exercise itself was very much picturesque and spectacular especially the high-mountain rescue presentation. Furthermore, it was also a good occasion to promote the close border region cooperation in mass media, especially that it was real life exercise with the usage of special equipment and professional rescue teams. After the official part , the participants were introduced with broad issue -the crisis respond management and were welcomed to watch the various presentations and actions that were a practical part of exercise. The organizations prepared examples of the seventh various scenario of crisis situations or natural disasters: rescuing a drowned man and also a sunk car in the river, dealing with oil polluted river and restoring it to the previous condition, rescuing the victims from the railway collision, preventing the endangered area from over flooding by fastening the dykes, presenting the various techniques of extinguishing the fire in the forests and meadows, high-mountain rescuing, providing the electricity during the massive electricity system breakdown on the wide area. Undoubtedly, the possibility to observe such exercise was extremely interesting and valuable for all participants and guests. Even though Crisis management is a relatively new field of management, Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) considers it as one of the major missions and is able to contribute to Crisis Management and Peace Support Operations as a Land Component HQ within the NATO. Furthermore as a Headquarter we emphasize the proactive crisis management activities that include forecasting potential crises and planning how to deal with them. Furthermore, crisis management often includes strong focus on public relations to recover any damage to public image and assure stakeholders that recovery is underway.
